Fairy Tail: End of an Era
by JerrySama
Summary: When a mysterious item is revealed, and a new threat arises, the mages of Fiore must fight to protect their country and loved ones, as they try to rid the world of this danger.
1. Chapter 1

Fairy Tail: End of an Era

Chapter 1: An Ominous Wind

Having just completed a job in a village south of the Magic Council's headquarters, the members of Team Natsu were now making their way toward the nearest train station so they could return to Fairy Tail.

"Why couldn't we take a job that was more fun?" Natsu complained.

"Not every job involves fighting, flame brain." Gray retorted. "Besides, the job's done anyway, so quit your damn complaining."

Knowing what was about to happen, Lucy tried to prevent the near-inevitable fight.

"Guys, please calm down. Lets just be happy we got the job done, alright?" But her plea went completely ignored by the two. Hearing his rival's words, Natsu immediately spun around to glare him, fists covered in flames. "What was that, Gray?! You got a problem?!" As if he'd expected this exact reaction, Gray was already right in Natsu's face returning the glare.

"As a matter of fact I do. If you'd just quit complaining about every job that doesn't let you blow something up-"

"That's enough, both of you!" Erza said, cutting Gray off as she stood behind them. Upon hearing her voice, Natsu and Gray's attitude immediately took a dramatic turn in the opposite direction as the two suddenly had awkward smiles on their faces an arm around the other's shoulders.

"W-we weren't fighting! We're getting along just fine, Erza..." They said in unison, and the scarlet-haired mage gave a slight nod.

"That's better. Now keep it that way. And Lucy's right. Lets just be happy everything went well." she said before continuing walking, dragging behind her a cart carrying a mountain of luggage as she went. Happy then flew up right by Natsu's head with a cheery smile.

"Natsu, can we get some fish on the way back?"

"You bet! I'm starving too, so hopefully we'll see a place to eat soon." he said, patting his stomach as he spoke.

"And maybe I could bring a fish back for Carla!" Happy said in an excited tone. "Do you think she'd like it?"

"He doesn't give up, does he?" Lucy said out loud to herself as she walked with the rest of the group.

Almost immediately as they entered the town, the group stopped as distant shouts became audible.

"Hey, stop right there!"

"Get back here, you little brat!"

"Eh...? What's going on?" Lucy asked.

The answer then became clear as a teenage boy with black hair who seemed to be holding something in his right hand came sprinting in their direction, with four angry men in pursuit. As he was about to go past the group of Fairy Tail mages, Erza's hand reached out and grabbed him by the collar, stopping him in his tracks.

"What's going on? Why are they chasing you?" She asked. The boy struggled frantically to free himself from her grasp.

"Let go of me! Those guys are trying to attack me! I have to get away!"

Erza's expression became stern as she turned to face the approaching men, still holding on to the teen's shirt.

"Four grown men attacking a defenseless boy. Despicable. Natsu, take care of it."

"Heh. Way ahead of you, Erza." Natsu said with a grin before punching his fists together, conjuring a fiery magic circle in front of him. He then leapt into the air as a stream of fire was produced from each of his arms.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" he shouted, then swung his arms forward, launching the flames directly at the approaching men. By now the teen, still being held in place by Erza, had stopped trying to escape and watched wide-eyed as Natsu's attack resulted in a large explosion, leaving each of the pursuers unconscious in the street, while also damaging several of the surrounding buildings.

"I think that might've been a little overkill..." Lucy said, a large sweat drop rolling down her head as she saw the damage Natsu caused, but then turned her attention to the teen. "So who were those guys and why were they after you, anyway?"

Blinking as the attention was brought back to him, the teen again began to pry himself free of Erza's grip.

"It doesn't matter! Just Let me go!"

Happy then noticed something in the boy's hand. Curiosity getting the best of the Exceed, he flew in and grabbed the object and looked at it curiously. It was a black stone about the size of a child's fist.

"Hey! Give that back!" The teen shouted in protest.

"Look! I found a pretty rock!" Happy said, waving it in the air for the rest to see.

"They were chasing you over a rock? That seems strange..." Gray said, raising an eyebrow.

"I have a feeling there's a little more to it than that." Erza replied before letting go of the boy's shirt and looking at him again. "What's your name?"

Flashing a cocky grin, the boy pointed a thumb at himself as he answered. "I'm Mason Calvot, the greatest mage of all time and part of the Shaman's Haven guild!" But right when he finished his introduction, he suddenly sneezed. Feeling he'd killed any feeling he'd tried to create with his statement, he blushed in embarrassment. "St-stop looking at me like that! And give that back, you stupid cat! It's mine!" he said, pointing to the stone Happy was holding.

"Shaman's Haven? Haven't heard of it." Gray said

"Well duh!" Mason retorted. "We're a new guild, but one day I'll make it the top guild in Fiore! Now give me back that stone!"

"Why is it so important to you?" Lucy asked, to which Erza nodded.

"Yes, I'm rather curious about that too. Of course we'll return it to you. I just wish to know why those men went through so much trouble to chase you over it."

"Maybe it's a really rare gem worth lots of money!" Natsu said, clearly excited by the possibility, and Happy seemed interested in the idea too.

"Natsu! How many fish do you think we could buy with it?" He asked.

"Oi, aren't you two getting a little carried away?" Gray asked, unaware that at some point during the conversation, he'd stripped off his shirt.

"Ha! Says the guy who likes running around half-naked!" Natsu replied.

"Huh?" Gray looked down, and jolted in surprise when he realized what had happened, then quickly put his shirt back on. Noticing Natsu was now laughing childishly at him, Gray grunted in frustration. "It's not funny, Natsu! So quit laughing or I'll beat your ugly face in!"

"Who're you calling ugly?!" Natsu quickly retorted. It was very apparent another fight between the two was close to breaking out, and Lucy rushed over to try to calm them down.

"Guys, come on! We've already caused enough damage here without you two fighting each other!"

But once again her voice went ignored as the two continued to bicker back and forth. Finally, Erza had had enough. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she suddenly launched forward at the two.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" her voice boomed out as she slammed a fist into each of their heads, rendering both of them unconscious. She then let out a sigh as she calmed down, then tried to return to the situation at hand.

"At any rate- Where is he?" Erza asked, suddenly noticing Mason was nowhere to be seen. Happy's eyes then widened when he realized the stone was no longer in his hands."

"Eh?! The rock! It disappeared! But what about my fish?!"

Having woken up just soon enough to grasp the situation, Natsu took off in a sprint out of the town, following Mason's scent.

"That damn kid! Leaving before we were finished talking to him!"

"Natsu, wait!" Lucy called out, but Erza as well as Gray, who had just regained consciousness as well, were already sprinting after the dragon slayer.

"There's no stopping him, Lucy! Lets just follow him for now!" Erza called back, and Lucy sighed before reluctantly following behind, with Happy flying alongside them.

Several minutes later, Natsu had finally started to catch up to Mason, as the fleeing teen was now in sight.

"Oi! Get back here!" Natsu shouted. Mason started to panic as he ran, but an idea came to his head. While he continued to pursue, Natsu's belt suddenly came undone, and his pants fell around his ankles, causing him to trip and fall face first into the ground. Mason then stopped for a brief moment and stuck his tongue out at the dragon slayer in a childlike fashion.

"Ha! That's what happens when you mess with the greatest mage of all time!"

"Wait, you did this with your magic?! Why you little...!" As Natsu stumbled over himself in his attempt to quickly pull his pants back up and continue running, Mason had again increased the gap between them, and his destination now became apparent. In the distance, right along the base of a mountain range up ahead, was a building that resembled an Oriental-style manor, with a few steps leading up to a wooden floor that ran along the outside of the building. Running up those steps, Mason quickly slid the front door open and darted inside before closing the door behind him. By this point Natsu's pursuit was then suddenly stopped as Erza, who'd finally caught up to him along with Gray, Lucy, and Happy, reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait just a moment, Natsu." She said.

"Huh?! But he went in there!" Natsu replied, pointing to the building. "Lets just go in there and find out why he ran off in the first place!"

"That's fine. But lets all go together, and let me handle the talking. We can't just barge into a place like this and cause chaos." Erza said, before pointing to a sign on the roof that read, "Shaman's Haven."

"So this place is his guild, then..." Lucy said, thinking aloud to herself.

"Precisely." Erza replied with a nod. "This is Fairy Tail's first meeting with this guild, so we should try not to leave a bad impression. That means you can't go in there and start a fight.

"Fine, I won't do anything." Natsu said reluctantly.

"Good. Lets go then." Erza nodded again before leading the way as the group walked toward Shaman's Haven together.

Meanwhile, after Mason had closed the door of the guild behind him, he sighed in relief, then chuckled and grinned to himself as he looked at the stone in his hand. He started to turn around to head to his room, but stopped, startled as a tall man with long dark hair, wearing a dark kimono, a white scarf around his neck, and a straw hat on his head stood there with his arms folded over his chest, looking down at the teen.

"Mind tellin' me what happened?" the man asked, to which Mason simply gave an awkward chuckle and scratched the back of his head.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about?" he said, though it was quite clear he knew exactly he meant.

"Don't play dumb. I know you took an S-Class job from the request board." the man replied, before noticing the stone in Mason's hand. "I bet it had something to do with that, didn't it? Give it to me." He held out his hand, waiting for Mason to hand it over.

"Fine, fine! Jeez, I don't see what the big deal is." Mason replied before dropping the stone into his hand. But at the exact moment the stone made contact with the man's hand, a sudden gust of wind came through an open window in the next room, blowing out a couple candles that had been lit near where he was standing. A simple coincidence in timing, most would say, but not him. There was an eerie, ominous feeling that came over him as he held the stone, wondering just what it was exactly.

"Mason, where did you-" he was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Alright... Go to your room for a bit. I'll talk to you again in just a little while." he said, and Mason ran off to his room.

The tall man then slid the stone into his pocket and gave a slight grin as he went and slid the door open, revealing the Fairy Tail mages that had followed Mason.

"Well hello there. Who might you all be?"

Erza gave a polite bow before speaking.

"I apologize for the intrusion. I am Erza Scarlet, and these are my teammates: Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Happy. We are mages from Fairy Tail."

"Ah, 'the' Fairy Tail, huh?" he replied with a chuckle, before tipping his hat to the mages. "I'm Satoshi Kazeyama, guild master here at Shaman's Haven. To what may I ask do I owe the pleasure of a visit from members of a guild such as yours?"

"We encountered one of your mages earlier. Mason, I believe. Again, I hate to intrude, but would you mind if we came inside and discussed the mater?" Erza asked.

"Not with that dragon slayer with you ya can't." Satoshi replied bluntly. The comment seemed to catch all of them off guard.

"I beg your pardon?" Erza said.

"I didn't stutter." Satoshi replied, before nodding a head toward Natsu. "I don't want him comin' in my guild."

"Oi! How did you even know I was a dragon slayer?" Natsu asked.

"Because you stink like one." Satoshi retorted.

"Oh yeah?! Well you smell like a... wait... Why do you smell like-"

"Enough, Natsu. I'll handle it." Erza interrupted, before turning her attention back to Satoshi. "With all due respect, he's with us. If he isn't allowed in, we'll all just stay out here."

"Have it your way." Satoshi said with a shrug. "So what's the problem with Mason?"

"He was being chased by several men a little while ago. We helped him, but when we tried to talk to him to figure out the details of the situation, he ran off before we could get any real answers. All we know is it had something to do with a black stone." She explained.

Still unsure of what to think about the stone, Satoshi wasn't certain what he should or shouldn't say about it, especially to people he didn't know well enough to know if they could be trusted. So he decided to make something up to make the incident seem as trivial as possible. "Ah, that. It's just some kinda rare gem or somethin. He took a job request that asked him to find it and return it to its owner. The guys chasin' him were probably after it too."

"Aha! I knew it!" Natsu exclaimed, though Gray wasn't quite convinced by the lie just yet.

"Wait, if it was his job to return it to someone, why'd he bring it back here?" he asked.

"Well, I can't read his mind or anything, but I'd guess he got startled by all the chaos form earlier and decided to come back here until everything calmed down." Satoshi answered.

"I guess that makes sense..." Lucy said.

Again, Erza gave a polite bow to the guild master.

"Thank you for your time. I apologize for any inconvenience we might've been."

"No problem." He replied. "And feel free to visit any time. But avoid bringin' 'him' if you can help it." he said, again motioning to Natsu. Knowing the others were all likely as frustrated as she was from hearing him speak about their guildmate like that, Erza quickly led the way away from the guild, encouraging the others to follow behind before any of them did something they'd regret. Once they were a decent distance away from Shaman's Haven, Gray was the first to speak.

"Tch. What an asshole. Telling us we couldn't go in just because we had a dragon slayer with us."

"Yeah, that was strange." Lucy added. "I wonder what his problem with dragon slayers is..." Remembering something else from the encounter moments ago, Erza then turned and looked at Natsu.

"Natsu, I stopped you from finishing that statement earlier to avoid being rude. But it seemed like you noticed something unusual about that man's scent. What was it?"

"It was weird. And maybe I was just imagining it, but... That guy, he smelled like..."

"Like what? Spit it out, Natsu." Gray said impatiently.

"Gray, that's enough." Erza said before turning her attention back to Natsu. "What did he smell like." As if he still didn't entirely believe it, Natsu hesitated as he spoke.

"His scent was just like...a dragon's..."

Everyone's eyes immediately went wide in shock.

"Oi, are you saying he might be a dragon? That's ridiculous!" Gray said.

"He was just an ordinary human though, right?" Lucy asked.

"He didn't look like a dragon to me..." Happy chimed in. Natsu just scratched his head.

"I don't really get it either. And maybe it was just a coincidence or something..."

Erza glanced back toward Shaman's Haven, a look of suspicion covering her face.

"I don't like this. Something tells me there's much more to this situation than we know. It just doesn't feel right..."

"So, what do we do?" Lucy asked, and Erza thought for a moment before answering.

"There's nothing we can do at the moment. For now, the best thing would be to return to Fairy Tail. Maybe we can tell master about all this and get his thoughts."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Gray said. "Lets get going."

Erza nodded in agreement, and the group began making its way back to Fairy Tail.

Back in Shaman's Haven, Satoshi had closed the door again once the Fairy Tail mages had left.

"Mason, I know you're still there. Come on out." he said, and the teen pouted as he came around from the corner of the next room where he'd been hiding.

"Now Mason, I ain't mad ya took that S-Class job. But I do need ya to tell me everything about it, including everything ya know about this stone, and why the client wanted you to get it for him." he said, pulling the stone back out from his pocket.

Mason sighed, then began to explain.

"Actually, the job was to destroy the stone, but I don't know why..."

"Destroy it?" Satoshi asked curiously. "So why didn't you?"

"I tried! I tried hitting it against rocks, trees, buildings, I tried biting it, stomping on it, throwing it, but nothing worked! The stupid thing wouldn't break."

Satoshi listened intently, taking in everything the young mage said.

"I see. And how'd you get it?"

"Well, a dark guild had it, so I snuck in and stole it..." Mason then grinned and began to "exaggerate" the details. "Once I found it, dark mages started attacking me from every direction! But I wasn't scared! I beat up ten- no, TWENTY without even using any magic! And then, I-" Mason continued to go on and on telling his fake story of how he'd defeated this dark guild, and Satoshi tuned him out as he contemplated the parts of the story that he knew to be true.

"So he stole it from a dark guild, and was running away from them when he ran into those Fairy Tail mages." he thought to himself, then held up a hand to motion Mason to stop his story. "Alright, I think I get it. Thank you, Mason. Do you know what darg guild it was exactly?" Mason just shook his head.

"No. I heard one of them say the guild used to be a lot bigger, though." he said. Satoshi nodded before holding the stone up and observed it again, when an idea came into his head. Curious as to what the result would be, Satoshi channeled his magic energy into the stone. As he did this, three parallel lines of strange characters appeared along the surface of the stone.

"What the hell...?" he said. Now just as curious as Satoshi, Mason tried to get a good look at it too.

"What is that?" he asked.

"Runes, I think, but..." he started to answer, before some other thoughts began to run through his mind, distracting him.

"Mason, I need you to do me a favor..."

"Really? What is it?" he asked.

"There's someone I need to go see. While I'm gone, gather the other members, and spread the word to every guild in Fiore you can that I'm callin' an emergency guild master's meeting to be held in Crocus next week."

"Sure! But why do you need to have that meeting?" Mason asked curiously.

"Well, that's what I'm gonna find out. Now get goin. I'll try to be back as soon as I can." the guild master replied, and Mason then ran off to find the other members.

Putting the stone back into his pocket, Satoshi then went to his room and grabbed a katana, putting it in the side of his belt, as well as a staff, which he carried in his left hand. He then exited the guild and took several steps out into the open before stopping. A moment later, a pair of large, light gray, scaly wings then sprouted from his back. With a quick flap of the wings, the master of Shaman's Haven took flight, soon soaring through the sky as he moved to his destination.


	2. Chapter 2

Fairy Tail: End of an Era

Chapter 2: Budget Meeting

A week had now gone by since the meeting between Fairy Tail's mages had Shaman's Haven. The majority of the guild masters in Fiore had been notified of the emergency guild masters' meeting. There were some who chose not to bother going, but many were curious as to what this was all about, and made the venture out to Crocus. Among them was Makarov Dreyar, the current master of Fairy Tail. He made his way through the streets of the nation's capital until he arrived at the entrance to a rather large inn, which happened to be the same place where the mages of Sabertooth stayed during the last Grand Magic Games. Entering into the building, Makarov walked into the dining area, where most of the masters had already arrived, and were sitting at tables scattered all over the room and talking amongst themselves.

"Ah, Makarov! About time you showed up!" a familiar voice called out. Makarov looked in the direction it came from, and saw it was Master Goldmine of Quatro Cerberus, grinning as he looked over from his table, where Master Bob of Blue Pegasus as well as Master Ooba Babasaama of Lamia Scale. Makarov then took a seat and joined them at the table.

"Good to see you, old friend. I hope I'm not too late." Makarov said.

"Oh no, not at all." Goldmine replied. "It seems the one who asked us here hasn't even shown up yet."

"Whoever this guy is, he'd better have a good reason for calling this meeting or I'll make him spin!" shouted Ooba.

"Now now, lets try to be as calm as possible." Master Bob said with a smile. "I'm sure it must be important, whatever it is."

"Speaking of which, do you know anything about it, Makarov?" Goldmine asked. Makarov thought for a moment before shaking my head.

"A few of my brats had an encounter with the master of Shaman's Haven and one of its mages. I'm not exactly sure how, but I have a feeling there might be some connection."

"Well its more than anyone else here has to go on." Goldmine said. "What happened exactly?" Makarov folded his arms over his chest and recalled about what Erza had told him several days ago, then relayed the events of that day as they had been described to him, including Natsu's observation that the guild's master smelled just like a dragon."

"I see. So you think it might have something to do with that gem, then?" Goldmine asked, and Makarov nodded.

"It's possible. A gem that several men went through a great amount of effort to try to get a hold of comes into his guild's possession, and he calls for an emergency meeting just days later? Doesn't sound like coincidence to me. And though I find it hard to believe that the master of a guild could be a dragon, at the same time I trust Natsu's sense of smell."

"Hm... It does seem like a troubling situation..." Master Bob said, trying to process all the information.

Makarov just sighed before responding. "At any rate, I guess we'll just have to wait until he gets here to find out what-" he stopped and turned his head as the door opened, and Satoshi Kazeyama walked inside. The rest of the masters also turned and watched as the one who called them there finally entered, waiting for an explanation as to why they were there. His staff was in his left hand, and the straw hat rested upon his head, and a slight grin appeared on his face as he looked around at all the masters in attendance.

"Sorry I'm late, everybody. But if you could all just bear with me for a few more minutes, I'll be right back, and we'll get started." he said before walking into another part of the inn. Though no one immediately said everything, every one of them was slightly frustrated at least to have been waiting for so long only for Satoshi to suddenly go off somewhere else. Muttered conversations began to sound through the room.

Goldmine then noticed Makarov glancing around at the other masters.

"Something wrong, Makarov?"

He shook his head. "No, its just that there's several masters here I haven't seen before."

"Ah, well while we have a bit of time I'll tell you about some of the ones you might not be familiar with. A lot are representing guilds that started pretty recently. See the girl with the black hair over there?" he asked, pointing toward a table a few over from theirs, and Makarov nodded. "That's Ola Belle of Black Phoenix. She's mute, by the way and uses her magic to write in the air to communicate, just in case you get the chance to talk to her. And then over 'there,'" he said, pointing to another table, where a very tall man with long blonde hair sat, "is Mac, the master of Aurora Pistola. I believe Sting's here to represent Sabertooth, and of course you've met Calium of White Eclipse." he said, pointing to another table near the center of the room. "And then there's 'Mr. Talkative' over there in the back, Minoru Kanemoto from Radioactive Decay." Goldmine said sarcastically, nodding his head toward a white-haired man who appeared to be in his early twenties sitting quietly in the back corner, with his arms folded across his chest and scowl on his face that suggested he had no particular interest in talking to anyone there at all Makarov turned to glance at the isolated master before turning back to Goldmine.

"You know him?"

"No, never met him. Just know who he is." Goldmine responded. "When he showed up, he just went straight back to that spot and sat down. Hasn't said a word, and hardly budged an inch since."

Just as Goldmine finished his sentence, Satoshi made his way back into the room, holding a small cup in his hand.

"Sorry for the wait. Just had to find the sake." he said with a chuckle before drinking the contents of the small cup and setting it down on the nearest table.

"Oh my, it seems like he'd be quite suited to be a member of your guild, Goldmine." Master Bob said, and Quatro Cerberus' master just chuckled at the comment and waited for the meeting to begin. After clearing his throat, Satoshi began to speak.

"I assume you're all wonderin' why you're here. And it may take a while to explain everything, so I guess I'd better get right to it then." he said, before reaching into his pocket. When he pulled it back out, the same stone Mason had brought back to Shaman's Haven a week ago was in his hand.

"So I was right after all..." Makarov said to himself.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Satoshi continued "what I have here is no ordinary stone. It's called the Resurrection Stone, and was created by Zeref several hundred years ago."

Silence and dropped jaws filled the room as he finished his statement. The subject of the emergency meeting had quickly become quite clear, but in the process countless more questions began to race through the minds of the masters in attendance. Aware that there was already a lot of confusion, Satoshi then channeled his magic energy into the stone, causing the white runes to appear on it, and drawing light gasps from several of those who saw it.

"As you can see, there's several runes on the stone. And since I'm no expert on runes, I went and found someone who is, Master Kanemoto back there." he said, motioning to Minoru who was still seated in the same spot near the back corner. "Minoru, tell 'em what the runes say."

The attention of every master in the room went to Minoru, and for the first time since his arrival, the quiet man opened his mouth to speak.

"It says, 'This stone shall retain its shape, size, and form in its entirety until a thousand wayward souls are returned to their rightful home.'"

"Thank you." Satoshi said. "After Minoru translated the runes for me, we both did some research on the stone, and found that several hundred years ago, while Zeref's dark reign of terror was at the peak of its power, he sealed the life force of exactly a thousand people that died because of him into this stone. And when you channel magic into it while it's near someone who's died, the stone pours the life force from one of those victims into the corpse, and brings it back to life. And as the runes say, the stone is essentially indestructible until it's been used to bring a total of a thousand people back from the dead.

"Oi, hold on just a second!" Sting, who had been sitting near the front, said as he stood from his seat. "Zeref was said to be the most evil person to walk the face of this world, and was responsible for countless deaths during his time. So why would he go through the trouble of making something that 'gives' life when he clearly cared much more about taking it?"

Seeing it was a dragon slayer he would have to address, Satoshi rolled his eyes before responding.

"We only have a couple theories. The first is that it was made so he could revive any of his fallen minions to continue his path of destruction. Another, far less likely theory is that he made it just in case he ever had a change of heart and wanted to try atone for what he'd done. But again, those are nothing more than theories. Can't confirm either of them."

Master Ola then raised a hand and traced a finger through the air, generating shadows that wrote out the words, "How did you get the stone?"

"Well, one of my mages took a job request, which asked for the stone to be destroyed. At the time it was in the possession of a dark guild. But he managed to infiltrated and steal it. But as you can see, he wasn't able to destroy it, so he brought it back to the guild. We've searched for the client, but he's nowhere to be found, and left no trace to track." Satoshi explained. Aurora Pistola's master was the next to speak.

"Ya said a dark guild had th' thing before yer guy got hold of it. Guessin' that means ya called us here fer a bit more than just to tell us 'bout that fancy stone then, huh?"

"Of course." Satoshi answered. "The dark guild was called Eisenwald. Guessing most of you've probably heard of it." he said, and several of the masters began to mutter quietly among themselves, remembering the incident with "Lullaby" several years ago. Satoshi then continued.

"And I'm guessing most of you have already figured out what a dark guild like that learning about the stone means for us. It means the forces of the Ballam Alliance want it. I suspect that as people who fought under Zeref, they intend to use it to revive the powerful mages and demons that also fought for him hundreds of years ago. If the Ballam Alliance gets a hold of this stone again, it could potentially mean the end of our world as we know it."

Silence washed over the room as everyone took a moment to take in what had been said. And after several moments, it was Makarov who broke the silence.

"There's still problems surrounding this that haven't been addressed. Since Eisenwald had the stone, it's possible they've already used it to begin rebuilding Zeref's forces in the shadows without anyone knowing about it. Also, we need to discuss what to do with the stone now that 'we' have it. It can't be destroyed, so what are our options?"

"You're right." Sting chimed in. "We have no idea how many more revivals it has left in it at the moment. It may not've revived anyone yet, or it may only have one left in it. So... Could we just go to cemeteries in Fiore and revive as many as possible until the stone loses its power? The Ballam Alliance wouldn't be able to make use of it then, right?"

"No, we can't do that." Satoshi said. "We might end up reviving a lot of people who were dangerous criminals, and I'm sure we won't have time to research every last person and figure out who 'deserves' to live again and who doesn't. But I agree we can't just sit by and do nothin' either. We've found ourselves in a dangerous game of 'keep-away' with a deadly enemy, with very high stakes. And we need a strategy if we intend to be victorious." he said, then looked around the room at the gathered masters. "So, any ideas?"

Outside of the inn, while the guild masters deliberated in the inn, a lone figure climbed onto the roof of a tall nearby building, bright hair extending nearly to his shoulders, large pointed ears, a fluffy tail protruding from his lower back, and the mark of Tartaros on the center of his chest. This was Jackal, one of the "Nine Demon Gates" of the infamous dark guild. His sharp teeth were visible as he grinned, looking to the large inn.

"Bringing the Resurrection Stone to the capital 'and' gathering all their leaders into one confined place. How stupid can they be?" He said, a chuckle coming from him as he spoke. "Oh well. Guess that just makes my job easier then." With that, Jackal looked on as an enormous explosion suddenly erupted from the inn. Debris flew in every direction as a large burst of flames shot straight into the air, and smoke soon towered high over the city. Screaming and panicking citizens quickly filled the streets as everyone nearby began to frantically flee the area. Jackal simply stood above the city, admiring his work, and let out a maniacal laughter that rang loud through the skies above Crocus amidst the sudden chaos.


	3. Chapter 3

Fairy Tail: End of an Era

Chapter 3: Declaration of War

Jackal's laughter continued to ring loud through the area as the inn hosting the guild masters' meeting had gone up in flames. The entire city of Crocus was now in a massive panic, the screams and chaos nothing short of a beautiful work of art to him. Once he was finally done admiring his work, Jackal jumped down to the ground and began to walk toward the burning building.

"Now to find the Resurrection Stone and get the hell out of this ugly city." he said to himself. But suddenly, an unnaturally powerful gust of wind came from within the building going in all directions, and Jackal was surprised to say the least when the wind drove him backward several feet and completely extinguished the flames consuming the building. Once he came to a stop, the demon's expression became one of utter shock at what he saw. Though the building was completely gone now, save for a few beams and small portions of a wall or two, the guild masters were alive and well, a box of runes surrounding each one of them. All were in the exact same spots they had been during the meeting, including Satoshi, who now had a pair of pale, scaly, dragon-like wings protruding from his back. The seated guild masters were speechless, with shocked expressions, half looking at Jackal and the other half looking at Satoshi. Of them the only one who didn't seem fazed by the event was Minoru, who still retained his stoic expression and kept his arms folded in front of his chest.

"Those wings..." Jackal said to himself as he looked at Satoshi. "That can't be..." Glancing at Jackal, Satoshi let out a slight chuckle as he held the Resurrection Stone up for him to see.

"If I had to guess I'd say you're from one of the very dark guilds we were just talkin' about. Well then, how convenient. Seems ya want this stone pretty bad as we suspected. Since your side had it first, I don't suppose ya could tell me how many people you've already revived with it, could ya?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Heh! As if I'd tell you anything!" Jackal retorted, forcing a smug grin despite the situation. "How the hell did you survive that blast?"

"Ain't it obvious?" Satoshi said before pointing to the runes protecting him and the other masters. "Now how 'bout you answer 'my' question?"

Jackal chuckled before replying, "Your little trick may have saved you this time, but don't think you're in any position to be questioning me. We /will/ take the Resurrection Stone back. And soon enough the entire continent will be soaked in your blood, and the blood of anyone who stands in our way!"

"I've heard enough!" Makarov shouted out as he stood from his chair and glared at Jackal. "You have the audacity to stand before us and threaten the safety of our country and families?! I won't stand for it! None of us will!" Continuing to glare at the demon, Makarov through his hand forward and pointed a finger at him. "On behalf of the legal mages of Fiore represented here, I hereby declare war on the Ballam Alliance! We've stopped your efforts before, and we'll do it again!"

Jackal bellowed out a loud laugh at hearing the proclamation.

"You'll fight back, will you? Then you might as well start digging your graves now. And that goes for all of you! We will usher in a new era for Lord Zeref, one free of you and you and your petty guilds!"

"Oh the winds of change have indeed been set in motion, that much is certain." Satoshi chimed back in. "But I wouldn't be so sure things will turn out the way ya want them to."

"Believe what you want. It won't make a damn bit of difference. Just know that you're all doomed. No one will be safe from Lord Zeref's wrath." Jackal responded. He then swiped is arms toward the ground, causing small explosions to occur all around him, and creating a cloud of smoke. When the smoke died down, Jackal was gone.

* * *

With the chaos of the situation having finally died down, Satoshi's wings retracted back into his body, and he once again brought his attention to the other masters.

"Sorry about that little interruption. Now then, where were we?" he asked calmly, almost as if nothing had happened.

Naturally, several different thoughts were running through each of the guild masters' heads regarding the events that had just taken place. But after a moment, it was Master Calium of White Eclipse, a man with near-shoulder length dark hair who wore a white kimono with a large red belt around his waist, who spoke first.

"We were about to discuss a course of action to take with the stone, but first I'd like to know how Master Kanemoto knew to set up these runes." he said, having already pieced together that he'd been the one to use them due to Satoshi's earlier comment that he had been the one who discovered and translated the runes on the Resurrection Stone. "I'm glad we're safe, but it almost seems too convenient."

Minoru almost immediately replied, "These runes say: 'Any force that attempts to bring harm to a living being within these boundaries will be repelled until the meeting has officially been concluded by Satoshi Kazeyama.' I wasn't expecting the attack. But it's always wise to have extra security."

"And it clearly paid off, so lets just be glad about that." Satoshi said, bringing that discussion to an end. "Now then, about the stone. Since it can't be destroyed, I think our best bet is to keep it hidden at least until the Balam Alliance has been defeated. But I don't think keeping it in one location would be smart. So then, what do ya say to the idea of moving it from guild to guild on a regular basis?"

"Seems to defeat the purpose of hiding it if we move it in the open so much, doesn't it?" Goldmine asked.

"Wait." Sting chimed in. "It could work. Maybe each guild could set a random amount of time they hold it before moving it to the next guild. And we could also have several guilds transfer fake stones to various guilds at the same time. That way it'd be difficult to find the real stone's actual location even when it's being moved."

Satoshi considered the idea for a moment before responding.

"Hate to admit it, but that's not a bad idea, dragon slayer." he said, drawing a slightly confused glance from Sting, wondering why it mattered that he was a dragon slayer. "Anybody opposed to the idea?" Satoshi asked, looking around the room. When there was no response, Satoshi continued. "Well alright then. It's settled. Fairy Tail will get the stone first, then will give it to Mermaid Heel in three days. From there, it'll go to Lamia Scale, Black Phoenix, Shaman's Haven, Radioactive Decay, Sabertooth, Aurora Pistola, Quatro Cerberus, and finally Blue Pegasus in that order before starting the cycle over. We'll decide random times at which to move the stone again to keep it from getting too predictable. And finally, I think it goes without saying that as long as we're fighting this war together, we all need to be ready to fight, and to help out another guild being attacked at a moment's notice. I'd gladly lay down my life for any one of you here if the winds of fate deemed it necessary. I can't 'demand' that of you all, but at the very least I implore each of ya to do what's necessary to help us win this war. So, any last questions?" Several seconds went by with no response. "...Well then it's settled. Best of luck to all of ya. Meeting adjourned." he said. And with the meeting officially over, the runes around each of the masters disappeared. As the meeting was called to an end, some of the masters had began to talk among themselves, while others left the destroyed inn and made their way back to their guilds. Satoshi then approached Makarov and held the Resurrection Stone out to him.

"Take good care of it. I'm sure I don't need to tell ya, but I wouldn't be doin my job if I didn't."

"It's fine. I quite understand." Makarov replid as he took the stone and put it in his pocket.

"Glad to hear it. Now if you'll excuse me, it's gettin' late, and I could use some sleep. So I'll be heading back to Shaman's Haven. Let me, or anyone else for that matter know if you need anything." Satoshi said. He then tipped his hat before once again extending his wings from his back, and flew up into the air, soaring through the sky as he went away from Crocus back toward his guild. Makarov watched as he left, taking a mental note of Satoshi's wings, deciding he would try to make sense of it later.

* * *

Seeing Radioactive Decay's guild master stand from his seat and head for the door, Makarov then went and caught up to him. "We were lucky you had those runes today. Thank you, Minoru, wasn't it?" Makarov said as he approached Minoru, then extended his left hand for a handshake. Minoru turned and looked down at Makarov for a moment, then somewhat reluctantly held his own out and accepted the handshake.

"Yeah. And don't worry about it." As he pulled his hand back, Makarov noticed a ring on his finger.

"Ah, so you're married, are you?"

Minoru nodded before replying, "As of about a month ago."

"Oh? Well then, congratulations!" Makarov said with a friendly smile. "Though it seems the timing of this war couldn't have been much worse for you."

Minoru just sighed at the comment. "Well, unfortunately there's nothing we can do about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to be getting back." he said, then immediately turned and walked off.

"Everyone seems to be in a hurry." Makarov said to himself. "Though I guess it's understandable... I guess I might as well head back to Fairy Tail and alert everyone."

He then began walking toward the train station, when a voice called out to him.

"Oi, gramps."

Recognizing the voice, Makarov stopped and glanced over, and saw Laxus leaning against the wall of a building.

"It seems I was smart to bring you along for security, though the enemy was rather crafty." Makarov said. "Any idea where he went?"

"Like you said, he was crafty." Laxus replied. "Several other guilds had mages around here too. But he somehow managed to slip away without a trace before any of us could reach him."

"I see... In any case, the meeting's over, so lets go home. I'll explain everything on the way. It looks like the country's being faced with another potential crisis."

Makarov resumed walking, and Laxus followed behind as the two started the trip back to Fairy Tail.

* * *

After flying for a while, Satoshi could once again see Shaman's Haven and descended down, landing on his feet by the front door before retracting his wings again.

"Ah, home sweet home." He said before sliding the door open and walking inside. The second he entered, a loud clap of thunder suddenly rang out inside the guild, causing Satoshi to jolt in surprise. A cloud then floated in from another room. Sitting on that cloud was a young woman with green hair extending down to her shoulder blades and the guild mark of Shaman's Haven on her left hip. She wore a green top with white cutoff sleeves, and white pants with a red belt. Her arms were over her stomach as she laughed hysterically at Satoshi's reaction to the thunder. This was Sira Morai, weather mage of Shaman's Haven.

"Looks like I got you again, Master Sato!" she said as she continued to laugh. Having regained his composure by now, Satoshi simply chuckled and shook his head.

"Oh don't worry. I'll get ya back for that later, Sira. But right now I've got somethin' important I need to talk to everyone about." he said, before calling out for the rest of the guild to hear. "Oi! I need everyone who's here to come on out to the main hall! Gotta talk to ya for a bit!"

Almost as soon as he'd spoken the words, he detected a familiar scent which caused him to grimace, as a female with long blond hair rose up from the ground next to Sira. She wore a small, short-sleeved light brown jacket with a yellow top, tight shorts that matched the jacket, and a pair of knee-high boots. She was Naomi Ishikawa, a ghost dragon slayer.

"Well, you look happy to see me." Naomi said sarcastically. "You know you don't have to make that face every time I show up."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Satoshi said, rolling his eyes as he waited for the rest. From another room, two more people then walked in. First was Mason Calvot, who immediately ran over to Satoshi with an eager expression on his face.

"Master Sato, what happened at the meeting? And what was that stone? A-and how many other guilds were there? And-"

"That's enough, Mason. Lets just hear what master has to say." said the other one. He was a slender man of average height, who wore a red shirt and a green coat thad had gold shoulder pads with frilly threads hanging from them, and tight white pants and a large green hat with two large white feathers on it. But arguably the most distinguishable feature of his attire was a mask that covered his face. The right half was white, and the left half purple, with black outlines around the spaces for his eyes.

"Thank you, Roy." Satoshi said, nodding to the man as Mason pouted and went to stand with the others. Satoshi looked around the room before speaking again.

"Where are the others?"

Roy answered, "Jay and Charlie went into town. I think Ethan's out too, but he'll probably be back soon. And Nyosuke is still out on his job, I believe."

Satoshi nodded again before continuing.

"That's fine. I'll just start the meeting now and fill everyone else in later. Everybody, listen up now, 'cause this is important and affects all of ya." he said, now focusing his attention on all the mages gathered in the room. He then explained the Resurrection Stone and why the Balam Alliance wanted it, as well as the assassination attempt at the meeting and the declaration of war. "Fairy Tail has it right now," he continued, "and it'll be movin' around from guild to guild every few days to keep make its location difficult to detect."

As the members present took a moment to digest the information, clearly surprised by what they heard, Mason was visibly nervous and began shaking at the thought of the guild going to war, but did his best to hide it.

"The Balam Alliance?! HA! Don't make me laugh! I'll take them all down myself so you guys don't have to worry about anything!" he said.

"This isn't a problem anyone can solve on their own." Sira commented. "We've all fought before, but we haven't been in anything like a war before." Her expression then changed to a rather confident grin. "We'll totally win this thing. But it's going to take all of us to do it."

"Yosh!" Naomi said enthusiastically, nearly mimicking Sira's smirk as she smacked her fist into her palm. "I can't wait to start kicking some ass!"

Satoshi grinned and gave a slight chuckle.

"Glad to know you're all ready. And Roy, goes without sayin' but since you're the ace of Shaman's Haven, we'll need your strength as well. I take it you'll be ready to fight when the time comes as well, right?"

Roy crossed his arms over his chest, a grin forming beneath his mask.

"As you said, it goes without saying."

"Good. Now all of ya, be sure to get some rest. If tonight was any indication, our enemy doesn't intend to waste any time in this war. We can't know when the winds will decide to carry us into battle, so we need to be ready at any given moment." he said.

"Sounds good to me. I was getting tired anyway. Goodnight, everyone." Sira said with a yawn, before her cloud carried her out of the main hall and to her room. The others then followed behind, with the exception of Roy.

"Somethin' on your mind?" Satoshi asked.

"The other guilds. The majority of them probably didn't even know who we were before this started. Can they really be trusted as our allies?" He asked.

Satoshi shrugged before responding.

"Who knows? This ain't about trust. It's about survival. And that seems to be a common interest among each of the guilds. We all certainly stand a better chance fighting together than individually."

"I suppose that's true." Roy replied. "Also, most of those guilds will likely have at least one dragon slayer, and you may very well find yourself fighting alongside them. Can...'someone like you' do that without letting your views get in the way?"

"Well you know I don't like to make promises," Satoshi said with a chuckle, "but I'll do the best I can."

"Hm... I guess that's as much as anyone could ask for. Goodnight then, master." Roy said, giving a brief wave of his hand as he turned and headed off to his room.

"Goodnight." Satoshi replied before walking off to his own quarters to get some sleep.

* * *

Having escaped the city of Crocus after his attempted assassination of the guild masters, Jackal made his way back to Tartaros. The large castle was atop its floating island as usual, located several miles away from Crocus, but far enough away from any roads or populated areas to avoid being seen. After entering through the gate, the demon walked through the halls until the sound of a familiar voice caused him to stop in his tracks.

"Your story had a terrible ending, Jackal."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Jackal said, turning to see Sayla sitting with one leg crossed over the other, alone by a table, eyes focused on an open book in her hands.

"You ended your story with a cliffhanger." Sayla said, not taking her eyes off her book. "It can be an effective tool if used correctly. But in this case I find it...distasteful."

"What the hell do you mean?" Jackal asked, somewhat annoyed by her statement though he didn't quite understand it. Sayla let out a small sigh before replying.

"I mean you failed to kill the masters or retrieve the Resurrection Stone. Your task went unfinished, and now our plans have been delayed once again."

Jackal grit his teeth and snarled at the female.

"You trying to blame it all on me then, is that it? It wouldn't have even come to this if those morons from Eisenwald hadn't let some brat steal it in the first place!"

Sayla just turned the page of her book, still paying little attention to him.

"Calm down. I was simply pointing out the flaw in your story. Fortunately, we've already begun a new one."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Jackal asked. A high pitch laughter then rang through the halls as Zancrow, the god slayer of Grimoire Heart entered the room with a wide grin on his face.

"You're slow, aren't you?" Zancrow said. "She means we've already sent several people out after the stone. Though we wouldn't have had to if you hadn't screwed up."

"Shut your goddamn mouth!" Jackal said, clenching his fists as his frustration increased because of the god slayer's comment.

"What's wrong? Kitty gettin' upset?" Zancrow taunted, his grin only widening as black flames appeared on his hands.

"That's enough." Sayla said, finally glancing up from her book as she looked at the two. Zancrow just chuckled as he let the flames die down, and Jackal grunted before crossing his arms over his chest, looking away from the Grimoire Heart mage.

"Zancrow, I know you've been eager for a fight since you were revived, but save it for your real enemies. Also, even though Jackal's mission didn't end as expected, we were fortunate they didn't discover our spy." Sayla continued, and this time it was Zancrow who glanced at the female with a confused expression.

"What spy? I never heard about that." he said.

Sayla again looked back to her book before replying, "Yes. A few weeks ago we apprehended one of the guild masters and locked him away in the dungeon, then replaced him with one of our own in disguise. He was present during tonight's guild masters' meeting, so we'll soon know exactly what those guilds are planning."

"We got one of their masters, huh?" Zancrow asked, his smirk returning as he spoke. "Which one?"

"The famous white dragon slayer of Sabertooth. Sting Eucliffe."


	4. Chapter 4

Fairy Tail: End of an Era

Chapter 4: Divide and Conquer

A train came to a stop at the station in Onibus Town, and the passengers began to file out. Among them was Radioactive Decay's master, Minoru Kanemoto. The quiet young man ran a hand through his white hair breathed a sigh of relief, glad to finally be back in a town he was familiar with. Minoru walked through the streets of Onibus until he arrived in front of the doors of Radioactive Decay, which was a simple two-story wooden building with a sign above the door that had the guild's name on it. Minoru opened the door, and before he even took one step into the guild, a woman with about shoulder-length black hair sprinted forward and nearly tackled him as she wrapped her arms tightly around him and buried her face in his chest. She wore a green top with a silver necklace, and a wedding ring on her left ring finger. Minoru quickly noticed she was sobbing, and wrapped his arms around her before lowering his head, and placing a light kiss on the top of her head.

"I missed you, Avani." Minoru said. Avani looked up at him, tears still filling her eyes.

"Minoru... I heard about what happened in Crocus. And I thought... What if..."

"Everything's fine." Minoru said, doing his best to reassure her. "I'm alright. And I'm here now."

Avani seemed to calm down a bit, but rested her head against him again and kept her arms locked around his torso.

"Promise you won't ever leave me, Minoru..."

A faint smile came over Minoru's face as he brought a hand under Avani's chin, and lightly tilted her head up to face him, before bringing his lips down to kiss his wife's.

"You know I'll always be here with you. That won't ever change. I promise."

Avani smiled up at her husband and gave a slight nod, wiping the tears away with the back of her hand. Minoru returned the nod, and the two then walked into the guild together. And once they were inside, Minoru's expression soon became serious once again.

"Avani, something else happened at that meeting. We need to talk with the rest of the guild about it."

The dark-haired woman frowned as she looked at him.

"It's about that stone, isn't it? You and that other master worked really hard to study it. That thing must be really important..."

Minoru nodded.

"It is. A full-scale war's started over it. And as a guild, we need to come to a decision as to what we're going to do."

Avani thought for a moment before giving a slow nod.

"I understand. I'll gather everyone who's here." she said before walking off. And while he waited, Minoru sighed before sitting at a table in the main hall, collecting his thoughts once more before he would speak to his guild about the issue.

* * *

By this point every guild master had returned from Crocus to their respective guilds, with the exception of Sting.

*Flashback*

Just after the guild masters' meeting had ended, the blond haired man representing Sabertooth had left the destroyed building along with everyone else. But instead of immediately returning to Sabertooth, he made a detour and walked a few miles out of the city, where the mobile island and Tartaros' castle were located. With a smug grin on his face, he entered through the front gate, but stopped as he saw Kyouka waiting for him just inside.

"Welcome back, Therian. Or should I say, 'Sting.'" she said, her lips forming into a small yet sadistic smile. "I take it no one has discovered your true identity, correct?"

"Of course." the male replied with a chuckle. His body then seemed to turn into a black, liquid substance before morphing into the shape of a human once again. It again became solid and color returned, revealing him with the appearance of a completely different person. Therian now had shoulder-length brown hair and a black trench coat, with a shirt, pants, and boots that were also black. "I must say, I do appreciate you reviving me and allowing me to serve Lord Zeref once again. I don't even know how many hundreds of years I wasted away in the grave. But I've had quite a bit of fun since you brought me back out of it."

"I'm glad to hear it." the female demon replied with a snicker, before turning around and beginning to walk, and Therian followed behind her.

"Now then," Kyouka continued, "do tell me what you learned at the meeting. What are those pesky mages planning to do?"

Therian then relayed the main points of the discussion that had taken place, and the guilds' plan to move the stone from guild to guild regularly as he suggested.

"It was rather easy to manipulate those fools. Or perhaps I'm just a good actor." he said with a chuckle. "Though I don't quite understand why you had Jackal bomb the place. If not for the runes I could've been killed as well."

"Indeed, although we would have revived you once again when we found the Resurrection Stone. But enough about that. Now that we know how they intend to act, it's time for us to make our next move." Kyouka said, before opening a door and entering into Tartaros' dungeon.

Therian continued to follow her, and the two stopped moments later as a particular cell came into view, and a woman was standing just outside of it.

"I thought I might find you here, Minerva." Kyouka said. Hearing her words, Minverva's lips curled into a smirk as she turned her head to face her.

"Kyouka. I was just having a friendly conversation with my...'old friend' here." she said with a small chuckle before once again turning her attention back to the cell. Inside it was Sting, who had been stripped of his clothing, with his arms locked behind his back. He was kneeling by wall on the far end of the cell, glaring at his former guildmate.

"I'm not your friend." he said. "And I don't care what kind of plan you freaks have. But whatever it is, you won't get away with it."

"Oh, I'm afraid I disagree." Minerva replied. "Be as confident as you'd like in your pathetic friends. It won't make a difference. Sabertooth has fallen from the height of its power, and that decline will continue until the once legendary guild is nothing more than a pile of ash and rubble. The same will happen to every other guild that stands in our way. And one by one, every last person you care about will perish."

Sting grit his teeth, frustration building in him as he listened to her words.

"You're wrong... Sabertooth hasn't gotten weak! If anything, what we've been through has made us stronger! You'll see. The Balam Alliance has been stopped before. And this time won't be any different!"

Without uttering a word, Minerva simply held a hand forward. Two bright orbs of magic energy appeared. The first covered Minerva's hand, while the second surrounded Sting's head. Manipulating the space within the sphere Sting was in, she then drained the oxygen from it and her cold smirk remained as Sting soon began frantically trying with no avail to escape it, slowly suffocating as he struggled.

"You are in no position to be spouting such foolish nonsense. I could easily crush you right where you are." She said.

"That won't be necessary. At least not yet." Kyouka said. Minerva chuckled again before releasing her magic, and Sting immediately fell to the ground as the orb disappeared, gasping for air.

"Of course, Kyouka." Minerva said. "I'm aware of our plan. I just wanted to have a bit of fun with him."

"There will be plenty of time for that later. But at the moment, I have a different task for you. Therian has given us the enemies' plan. The time to strike again has come." Kyouka said.

"Is that so?" Minerva asked, turning to glance at the two other demons. "Tell me, Therian, whose screams will I have the pleasure of hearing?"

"My my, quite the sadistic one you are." Therian replied with a smirk of his own. "But to answer your question, milady, the Resurrection Stone has been taken to Fairy Tail. However, with this new alliance, we can't afford to leave the surrounding guilds alone either. They'd undoubtedly provide reinforcements."

"I see. That means I'll be bringing some company then, won't it?" Minerva asked.

"Indeed." Kyouka answered. "I'll have them gathered momentarily, and then you will begin."

Maintaining her grin, Minerva again turned her glance to Sting.

"Do you understand, Sting? The destruction of these petty guilds will begin tonight. And there's not a single thing you can do about it."

With that, she turned on her heel, and Sting could only glare from his cell as the three of them exited the dungeon.

*End Flashback*

Therian had exited Tartaros, still disguised as Sting, and had finally returned to Sabertooth. Immediately after entering, however, he was met by Rogue, with Lector and Frosch by his side, as well as Orga, Yukino, and Rufus, all with worried expressions on their faces.

"Sting-kun!" Lector shouted out, tears streaming down his face as he ran over and hugged the man's leg. "We thought you were dead!"

"Eh?" Therian replied, feigning confusion. "What're you talking about, Lector?"

"We all heard about the explosion in Crocus." Rogue answered. "We were worried to say the least, but we're glad to see you've returned. Are you alright?"

"Ah, I see. Sorry to worry you all, but as you can see I'm just fine. But it's been a long day and I'm pretty tired." Therian said, before picking Lector up, only to set him down away from his leg. He then gave an exaggerated yawn and stretched his arms out as he walked by the Sabertooth mages. "I need to get some sleep. But I'll fill you all in on everything in the morning."

The mages of Sabertooth had certainly been relieved to see "Sting" safe and sound, but now they were all clearly confused about his behavior.

"What was that all about?" Orga asked.

"I'm sure it's just like he said." Yukino replied. "After what happened, it's understandable that he'd want some rest, right?"

Rogue thought for a moment before chiming in.

"Being tired is one thing, and Sting can definitely be carefree at times. But to act so casually after someone nearly assassinated him and nearly every guild master in Fiore... It just seems strange."

"Fro thinks so, too..." Frosch added.

Rufus gave a slight chuckle.

"Indeed. But these are strange times, are they not? I remember plenty of cases in which people have reacted to situations in ways different from that which we would consider to be the 'norm.' I think we should just give him the night to rest, then see what he has to say tomorrow."

Though somewhat reluctantly, they all nodded before going off to their own rooms to get some sleep, except for Lector. The Exceed was too worried for his friend, and couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

"Sting-kun..."

He couldn't ignore his gut instinct. He had to know what was going on. And so he ran through the large halls of Sabertooth until he reached Sting's room, and came to a stop just outside the door. Not sure if he was still awake or not, Lector slowly opened the door just enough for him to peek inside. But as soon as he did, he jumped back and quickly put his paws over his mouth to stop a gasp from escaping. There inside Sting's room, a figure stood, the darkness making its features hard to distinguish. But Lector could still tell that the person standing there was definately not Sting Eucliffe. After hesitating a moment, Lector had mustered up some courage and grit his teeth, and was about to storm inside and demand some answers from whoever the man inside was. However, after taking one step forward, the figure snapped its head around, and a pair of cold, terrifying eyes made contact with his own, causing him to suddenly freeze in fear where he stood...

* * *

Minerva stood within the walls of Tartaros, arms folded in front of her and a slight scowl on her face as she waited for the "teammates" Kyouka had selected.

"Tch. What's taking them so long?" she said aloud to herself, though as soon as she finished her sentence a door opened, and she glanced over to see who it was. Tempesta, another of Tartaros' demons then entered the room and stood a few feet away from Minerva.

"I'm ready. Where are the others?" he said calmly.

"We're still waiting on them. Honestly, why couldn't Kyouka just select someone who can actually arrive on time?" she replied.

"I certainly hope you're not implying anything." another voice said, as two more figures entered the room. Minerva and Tempesta looked in the direction of the voice and saw it had come from the master of Griomoire Heart, Hades, who was accompanied by Azuma.

"Not at all. But just because we went through the trouble of reviving you with the Resurrection Stone, don't assume that means you're so valuable you can slack on your duties." Minerva said.

"And don't assume you have any authority over us at all just because they turned you into a demon. We came here as soon as we were told about the situation." Hades retorted, then briefly glanced around the room. "Now then, is this everybody?"

"Not quite. There's still one more." Minerva answered. "Ah, speak of the devil..."

And once again, her eyes moved away from those already gathered as the last individual entered the room. He was a man of slightly above average height, with blue hair and a large hat on top of his head. His torso and shoulders were covered by black armor that had silver and red markings on them. Beneath his armor, there was a red shirt with long sleeves, as well as black wrist guards on his wrists and black gloves covering his hands. His hat cast a shadow over his face, though a pair of cold, piercing blue eyes were still quite noticeable. His lips curled into a small smirk before finally speaking.

"My apologies. I do hope I haven't kept everyone waiting." he said, with a slight chill to his voice as he spoke.

"Who are you?" Hades asked, ignoring his comment. "I don't recall ever seeing you. Are you new around here? Or where you also revived with that stone?"

"My name is Abbadon," he answered, "and both of those are correct."

"I'd never heard of him either, but Kyouka thought rather highly of his potential and insisted we revive and recruit him." Minerva explained. "Now, you'll all have plenty of time to get acquainted later. We've wasted enough time as it is. Does everyone know the plan?"

"Of course." Hades replied. "One of us will attack Fairy Tail and retrieve the stone. The rest will target the guilds closest to them to prevent reinforcements from aiding them. 'Divide and conquer,' essentially."

Minerva's previously annoyed expression turned into a cold smirk.

"Well then, lets begin." she said, before holding an arm forward. Using her magic, she conjured what appeared to be portals around each individual there, including her. The portals each then shut, the causing the five of them to disappear from the room, as each was then transported to their designated guild.

* * *

Inside Quatro Cerberus, Warcry, Rocker, Yaeger, Semmes, and Nobarly were all sitting around a table, each with a mug of beer. After hearing about the war, they had all been excited by the news.

"Oi, you guys. We might've come up short in the Grand Magic Games, but now this'll be our chance to show everyone how wild we really are!" Rocker shouted.

"FOUR!" they all shouted in unison, each throwing a fist into the air.

"Where's Bacchus, by the way?" Nobarly asked. "You'd think with all this alcohol around he'd be too."

"I think he took the new guys out for some training." Yaeger answered.

"Oh yeah! Those guys are pretty strong. It'll be nice to have them around once the fighting starts." Semmes said.

Rocker then noticed Warcry seemed to have a serious expression on his face, as if he was deep in thought.

"Warcry, what's up? Something bothering you?" he asked.

Warcry hesitated a moment before responding, "...Do you really think we're ready for this war? I mean, after the games and everything... Even Bacchus has been training hard since then. Shouldn't be at least be doing the same?"

"It ain't wild to talk like that! Have some confidence, would ya?!" Rocker replied. "But still, I get what you mean. Maybe we should train some- wait... What the hell...?"

At that moment, the ground beneath them began to shake a bit. And suddenly, an enormous tree sprang up from the ground, extending all the way through the roof, and putting each of the Quatro Cerberus mages in a state of utter shock.

"What the...?! Yaeger, did you do that?!" Nobarly asked.

"N-no!" The plant mage answered. "It wasn't me! But... Who the hell did?!"

About a hundred feet away from Quatro Cerberus, Azuma of Grimoire Heart stood.

"This world has no place for the weak. They must all be crushed." he said aloud to himself. A moment later, a huge explosion came from the tree, demolishing the guild, the fiery sight bringing a grin to Azuma's face.

"It has begun..."

* * *

Meanwhile in Blue Pegasus, the Trimens were all gathered. Hibiki and Eve were seated at a table, while Rem stood leaning back against the wall across from them. Ichiya was standing on the bar, striking strange and comedic poses.

"Men! This war as a bad perfume to it. Indeed these will be a tough situation for all of us. But do not fret! In the end it shall be our own perfume that prevails against our foes! Men~" he said, striking yet another pose.

"Your confidence is awe-inspiring, Ichiya-sensei!" Hibiki said.

"You can't expect any less from Ichiya-sensei!" Eve added, the two clearly feeling confident and motivated themselves at hearing his words. Ren, however, didn't react, which drew Hibiki's attention.

"Still worrying about Sherry? She'll be fine, just like we've already told you." He said. A slight blush came over Ren's face, and he quickly shifted his head to the side in a poor attempt to hide it.

"Tch. As if I'd be worried about her..." he said.

Ichiya then turned to face the troubled mage.

"Ren, any man would sympathize with your feelings. But to worry so much gives a bad perfume. Men~" he said, striking yet another pose. "You must try to relax your mind, so you-"

He was interrupted by a sudden knock at the door, which drew all of their attention.

"A guest at this time of night? I wonder who could that be?" Eve said before going to answer the door. But just as his hand was about to touch the doorknob, the door was blown in by a small explosion, and the shockwave launched Eve back into the wall behind him.

"Eve!" the others shouted in unison, each rushing over to help him.

"I-I'm fine!" Eve called back as he stood back up. Looking to where the door had been, he then let out a small gasp and his eyes widened in surprise as Minerva walked into the guild, her lips curled into a cold smirk.

"Minerva?!" Hibiki shouted out. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Your wicked perfume is not welcome here! Men!" Ichiya added.

"Why thank you for leaving the door open for me. You're such gentlemen." she said in a slightly mocking tone, ignoring their comments. She then held up a hand, and a bright orb of magic energy surrounded it. "Now then, it's time to eliminate this pathetic guild..."

* * *

On the outskirts of Clover Town, the Black Phoenix guild sat right on the edge of a waterfall, with an outer structure like that of a castle, as well as a stone walkway leading to dry land on either side of the river. Within the castle, Master Ola yawned sleepily as she began to make to her room to get some rest. The rest of the guild was loud, energetic, and noisy enough to rival the everyday chaos within Fairy Tail. News of the war was exciting for most of Black Phoenix's mages, and was the cause of this festive mood. But the recent chaos had tired Ola, who now only wanted to get some rest and worry about everything else later. But as she was heading to her room, she stopped and turned as one of the other mages called out to her.

"Turning in already, master? You've only just returned a little while ago." the man said. He was Mathias Cronqvist, a tall man with long white hair, who was also one of the guild's S-Class mages. The mute master gave Mathias a slight smile and nod, then raised a finger in the air and began to use her shadow magic to write a message.

"I know. Sorry, all the traveling has made me very tired." it read.

"I understand." Mathias replied with a nod. "Goodnight. And sleep well, master." He turned and began to walk back to join the rest of the guild, when something crashed through the ceiling and into the center of the main hall, producing a shockwave that knocked back every nearby member. Every mage that wasn't effected was instantly on guard, including Mathias and Ola, and looked into the center of the dust cloud that had been created, waiting to see what had landed there.

"What the hell...?!" Mathias said. When the dust finally cleared, Mathias' question was answered as Tempesta was revealed standing there. The demon briefly glanced around the room at the staring eyes of the surrounding mages, before stopping as his focus settled on Master Ola. Tempesta then quickly dashed forward at the guild master throwing his fist forward to punch her. But at the last moment, Mathias moved in front of her and caught the demon's arm, though it took quite a bit of effort to hold the demon back.

"You must be part of the Balam Alliance then." he said. "I won't forgive you for attacking this guild!"

Tempesta's expression showed almost no emotion, the demon clearly unfazed by Mathias' comments.

"Lord Zeref's judgement is upon you and your guild. And I will send each of you to hell."

* * *

In the main hall of Radioactive Decay, Avani had gathered every one of the guild's mages. There were ten, not including Minoru himself. Minoru had relayed every bit of the master's meeting to them, and the room had been silent as they each took a moment to think about it. Finally, Minoru broke the silence.

"In the past, Radioactive Decay has always kept a neutral stance. Everything we've ever done has been for our clients, and for the protection of this guild. We've never stuck our noses into any kind of unnecessary danger. War is something I'd very much like to avoid at all costs. However... This isn't like anything that's happened in this country before. This is one crisis we can't avoid by simply staying quiet and neutral. The fact is, we will eventually be forced to fight no matter what we do. And when that happens, I can't guarantee to any of you that you'll survive. For any of you that may want to leave now and try to avoid this war, this is your chance. I won't judge you. But know that if you stay, you're telling me that you're willing to do anything it takes to help protect this country, even if the cost is your life..."

Silence again filled the room as Minoru looked around at each of them. Though none of them immediately spoke, none moved from where they stood either. Finally one of them, a fairly petit young woman named Freya Caverly smirked before commenting.

"Would you quit being so melodramatic? Of course we're all staying! Do you even know how long I've waited for a chance to fight someone? It may be a bad situation, but I'll still totally kick some ass!" she said, slamming her right fist into her left palm.

Nicholas Sakai, a young man with short dark brown hair then chimed in.

"Hell yeah! With us on the front lines this war will be over in no time!"

"We're all in this to the end." added Tsuki Mizuki, a young female with long black hair.

Minoru looked around at each of them one more time, but it seemed the feeling was mutual throughout the guild, as each mage simply smiled and gave him a nod to assure they would also stay and fight.

"Hm. It's settled then." Minoru said. "I appreciate all of- Wait... Who is that...?" he said, narrowing his eyes as something from a nearby window caught his sight.

Roughly fifty feet in front of Radioactive Decay's front gate, Abbadon stood facing the building. For a while, he remained completely still, not making even the slightest of movements. But then, held his right hand in front of him, with the palm and fingers facing upward as flames appeared on his fingertips. Abbadon then crouched and touched the flames to the ground, the fire quickly spread out from his fingertips and rushed forward along the surface of the ground. After only traveling a few feet, they seemed to stop as they came into contact with a wall of protective runes that had previously been invisible, but now could be seen quite clearly. But Abbadon smirked, and the flames then traveled up the wall destroying the wall of runes as it did so, while completely shocking Minoru, who was watching on from inside with the rest of the guild.

"Impossible! There's no way the runes could be destroyed by simple flames!" he said. Upon seeing the flames, Avani averted her gaze from the window, closed her eyes, and tightly clenched both hands into fists.

Noticing this, Minoru reassuringly reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright, Avani." he said.

Abbadon now slowly walked toward the guild, the sadistic grin on his face widening as he drew nearer.

"Avani~! Are you and that lover of yours in there? Won't you two come out and play? We do have some...unfinished business, after all." he called out, a cold chill in his voice present as it traveled through the air. Immediately recognizing his voice, Avani's eyes had shot wide open, and the color had seemingly drained from her skin. Though he didn't recognize the trespasser's appearance, Minoru had recognized the voice as well, and was just as shocked as Avani.

"Does he know you? Who is that guy" asked Malcolm, a female member of the guild with tan skin and shoulder length white hair.

By now Minoru's shock had turned to anger and rage as the guild master glared through the window at the approaching man, not even hearing Malcolm's questoin.

"I thought we'd never have to worry about him again... Abbadon..."

* * *

Within Fairy Tail, the night was like any other. All the mages were loud and lively, living up to their well-established reputation. Makarov, however, sat alone at the guild bar. He held the Resurrection Stone in his hand, and silently stared at it as he pondered the recent events in his head.

"I know this is a troubling situation, but you shouldn't worry so much, master." said Mirajane, who was on the other side of the bar washing a mug.

"She's right." Erza said, walking over to join them. "We've defeated these enemies before. And we'll prevail this time too."

Makarov gave a slight sigh.

"Naturally war is a dangerous thing, and I want my family to be safe. But I know we are capable of winning this war. It's not our safety I'm worried about." he said.

"Then what is it?" Erza asked.

Makarov glanced at her before answering, "Since the Resurrection Stone can revive a total of one thousand people, and we don't know how many it's brought back, it was essentially decided we would only use the stone if it was absolutely necessary."

"So you're saying there's someone you want to bring back, but you're not sure if you should or not, right?" Mirajane said.

"Yes, and there's also the fact that I don't trust this thing." Makarov said. "It was made by Zeref himself, after all. Even if it does bring the dead back to life, it wouldn't surprise me if there's some kind of catch to using it."

"I see." Erza said. "I think perhaps we should test it just to find out exactly how it works."

"Well, that's what I've been thinking about. Remember, there's a limit to the number of people it can bring back. If I test it on an average citizen, but it happens to be the last person it can revive, then it won't have accomplished much for us."

"But at the same time, if you brought back whoever it is you're thinking about and something went wrong..." Mirajane added. Makarov nodded.

"Exactly. And also, I don't want to rush to use it. The power over life or death can be quite dangerous."

"That does sound difficult... But, whatever you decide, we'll stand by you." Erza said with a reassuring smile, and Mirajane gave a smile and nod to show she was in agreement.

"I certainly appreciate that." Makarov said, before returning his attention to the stone in his hand.

On the other side of the guild, Lucy had been talking to Levy, but looked toward the door as a knock was heard.

"I'll get it!" she said before making her way to the door. But just before she got there, Natsu sprang up from the table he'd been sitting at and sprinted toward her.

"Lucy! Get away from there!" he said, then dove and tackled her away from the door just a split second before an explosion destroyed it. The guild suddenly went silent as every mage in it immediately jumped up and looked toward the destroyed doorway as Natsu helped Lucy up off the floor.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Y-yeah. Thanks, Natsu." Lucy replied. "What was that?"

Natsu sniffed the air before turning around to face the doorway as well.

"I'm not sure, but the scent's familiar..." he said. At that moment, many of the Fairy Tail mages were surprised to say the least when none other than Hades strode into the main hall, then stopped and looked around.

"Purehito!" Makarov shouted in shock.

"You again?!" Natsu shouted, gritting his teeth and instantly igniting his fists in flames.T he master of Grimoire Heart donned a slight smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at him.

"It's good to see you again as well, Makarov." he said. "Now then, surrender the Resurrection Stone at once, or you will all be destroyed."


	5. Chapter 5

Fairy Tail: End of an Era

Chapter 5: Chaos in the Night

Within the walls of Sabertooth, Lector stood before Sting's door paralyzed in fear as the cold, unfamiliar eyes of Therian glared at him from inside the room. Lector had had thoughts of calling out to the other members for help, or rushing into the room to demand answers, and yet he couldn't summon the will to do either. Then, in the blink of an eye, the figure had lunged forward at him. Before Lector could even register what was happening and react, Therian had grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground, holding the Exceed against the wall. Lector kicked and struggled trying to get free, but to no avail as the one holding him gave a cold smirk and a low chuckle.

"Such a pitiful creature you are. It's a shame you had to see that. I really had no plans of actually killing anyone here for a while. But you just had to be curious, didn't you? Oh well. You know what they say..."

Therian then held his other arm up, which then seemed to turn into a black liquid-like substance. Its shape altered before solidifying again, now in the form of a sword's blade.

"...Curiosity killed the cat~" he said, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he spoke. He began to thrust the blade forward, but was stopped as Rogue suddenly emerged from Therian's shadow, sending a hard punch to his face which sent him stumbling back. Now free from Therian's grip, Lector collapsed to the ground, and coughed profusely as he tried to catch his breath.

"Are you alright, Lector?" Rogue asked, glancing back at the Exceed. Lector nodded, but tears had formed in his eyes as he couldn't help but worry about his missing companion.

"St-sting-kun..." was all he could manage to say. Clenching his fists as anger welled up in him, Rogue turned back to face Therian.

"Lector, I know how you feel. But remember, you're a member of Sabertooth. You have to be strong." he said. "So please listen carefully. I need you to go alert the rest of the guild about the situation immediately. Can you do that?"

Lector struggled to pull himself together, but managed a nod before running off.

Watching the Exceed leave the two of them, Therian gave a small laugh before glancing at Rogue.

"How kind of you to rescue that pathetic creature. But I'm afraid you've only succeeded in prolonging his death. Now he'll have to endure the emotional pain of worrying oh so much for his little dragon slayer friend. But fret not, I will put him out of his misery in due time."

"You won't be killing anyone in this guild." Rogue retorted. "Now tell me who you are and where Sting is."

Therian's lips curled into a cold, sadistic grin as he replied, "Pardon me. How rude not to formally introduce myself. I am Therian, shapeshifting demon of Tartaros, and forever loyal servant to the mighty Lord Zeref. And as for Sting Eucliffe, oh I dare say the chances you will see him alive ever again are almost nonexistent."

The second the last words had left Therian's lips, a dark aura erupted around Rogue as he activated his Shadow Drive.

"For the last couple weeks I noticed something was off about Sting. I just assumed it was because he was still getting used to being this guild's master. But it's really been you all this time, hasn't it? How dare you enter this guild and deceive us like this? Tell me where he is now!"

"My, my. Someone seems quite upset." Therian said, unimpressed by the dragon slayer's transformation. "And I don't think you're in any position to be making demands, boy."

"I couldn't care less what you think. If you refuse to tell me, then I'll just force the answer out of you." Rogue said.

Just then, Orga, Yukino, and Rufus came sprinting down the hall toward them, though neither Rogue nor Therian took their eyes off each other.

"What's going on?!" Yukino said.

Staying focused on the demon, Rogue answered, "This person has been impersonating Sting."

"What? But then where's...?" Yukino began to ask.

"That's exactly what I was about to find out." Rogue said. Then, not waiting a second longer, the dragon slayer rushed forward and threw a shadow-covered fist straight at Therian's face. The demon merely chuckled before jumping to the side to easily avoid the strike.

"Did you really think such a slow attack would be able to take me down? I'm insulted." he said, but quickly shifted his attention as he almost immediately found himself face to face with Orga. With both fists covered in black lightning, the god slayer shouted out as he swung one down at Therian. But again, the effort was in vain as Orga's target leapt into the air, completely avoiding any potential damage to himself. However, the gravity around Therian suddenly increased exponentially, and he was pulled right down out of the air and slammed into the ground. Over to the side, Yukino could be seen with one of her keys in hand and Libra standing in front of her.

"Great work, Libra!" she exclaimed. And not far from her, Rufus smirked as he brought his index and middle fingers to his temples.

"I've memorized your location. Now you shall pay for trying to make a mockery of Sabertooth. Memory Make... A Night of Falling Stars!" he shouted. And as the words left his lips, he extended his arms out, and several yellow beams of magic energy scattered through the air before racing right toward Therian, and exploded as they collided with their target. The Sabertooth mages waited patiently for the resulting cloud of dust and smoke to die down. And as it did, they were all surprised to see Therian now standing there, appearing to be unfazed by the attack, and his skin now seemed to be made of some sort of metal. The demon then chuckled before slowly clapping in mock applause.

"Excellent teamwork, truly excellent." he said. "Against a novice mage that might have even inflicted a few wounds. But as you can see, it doesn't seem particularly effective against a demon such as myself. And unfortunately I can't afford to waste too much time playing with you. I'm afraid it's time for you to die now along the other guilds."

"The other guilds? What do you mean?" Yukino asked, prompting a laugh from Therian.

"You see, even now as we speak, several of Fiore's strongest guilds are being crushed. In the end, all who oppose Lord Zeref will share the same fate... Certain death."

* * *

Abbadon continued to stand almost like a statue before Radioactive Decay, his piercing blue eyes visible through the shadow cast over his face, while the guild's members looked on from the windows inside.

"Avani dear, if you don't come out here soon, I'll just go in there and find you myself. Which will it be?" Abbadon said with a sadistic grin. And inside the walls of the guild, Minoru knew he needed to act fast if he wanted to protect his wife, and the rest of the guild for that matter. So after some quick thinking, he came up with the best plan he could.

"Malcolm, Nicholas, Iris, you guys come with me. The rest of you stay here." he said. Malcolm and Nicholas nodded, while Iris, a fairly short young woman with long navy blue hair, simply stood still and silent. Avani, however, didn't like the idea and reached out, grabbing her husband's hand.

"Wait, Minoru... Don't make me stay in here. Let me go too. Please..." she said, which surprised Minoru. And though there was definitely fear in her eyes, he could also see that she truly wanted to fight too. He brought his free hand behind Avani and pulled her into a tight embrace before lightly kissing the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, Avani. But I won't risk your safety. Scold me for it later if you want, but that decision's final." he said. And with that, he slowly pulled away from her before opening the front door and nodding to the mages he'd assigned to accompany him, and Avani watched with a worried expression as her husband exited the guild.

"Lets go." Minoru said before leading the way outside. The four mages walked until they were roughly ten feet away from Abbadon, who still hadn't moved an inch, and then stood side by side as they faced him. The evil smirk plastered on Abbadon's face was now much more noticeable as he spoke.

"Well now, how rude of you." Abbadon said. "And here I came all this way to catch up with my dear Avani. It has been quite some time... But instead I'm greeted by...well, this." He said, giving a slight chuckle as he spoke. "But I suppose her lover will suffice, at least for now." His smirk then contorted into an expression of utter fury and malice. "After all, it's not everyday one gets an opportunity for vengeance against the very person who put him in the grave."

"I'll gladly put you right back in it, Abbadon." Minoru immediately retorted. "And this time I'll make sure you stay there for good."

A sinister chuckle escaped Abbadon's lips as he glanced around at the other mages standing by Minoru, as saw a hint of confusion in their eyes.

"By the looks on your faces I'd guess he hasn't said much about me, has he? How unfortunate. I suppose he'll just have to give you all that little history lesson in the afterlife."

"I've heard enough of this asshole" Nicholas said before extending a hand in front of him. "Clock of the Time Demon..." As he spoke, a large magic circle appeared on the ground beneath all of them. Abbadon began to turn his head to look at the young man, but found his movement to be much slower than normal. Nicholas just smirked, and began walking forward at a normal pace.

"Not so tough now that your movement's been slowed down, are ya? You may've taken out some runes, but against the time demon slayer of Radioactive Decay, that shit doesn't mean anything."

Aiming to prove his point, Nicholas clenched his right fist and rushed forward, preparing to throw a hard punch right at Abbadon. His opponent, however, simply stood still. And just as Nicholas was about to reach him, a burst of flames erupted around Abbadon, and Nicholas stopped in his tracks before backing up a few steps.

"Heh. Not bad. But..." Nicholas' voice trailed off as the flames around Abbadon suddenly traveled down to the ground, and began to burn away the large magic circle.

"What?! How's that possible?!" Nicholas shouted in disbelief, but was almost immediately brought out of his thoughts as Abbadon charged forward, slamming a now flame-covered fist into the demon slayer's ribcage, drawing a gasp of pain as the hit sent him sliding back several feet. When he came to a stop, Nicholas fell to a knee, a pained expression on his face as he placed a hand over his chest.

"Tch. Damn. Think he broke a few ribs with that..." he said.

"I'll admit, trying to slow my movement was a smart idea." Abbadon said. "But, my flames consume magic. You see, since my recent resurrection, some wonderful people in a place called Tartaros turned me into a demon and granted me this tremendous power. What you've witnessed is not the magic of some mage, but the curse of a demon. No mage can pose a threat to me."

"We'll see about that!" Malcolm said, still confident despite seeing her guildmate being injured. "You've made an enemy of Radioactive Decay, and we won't show you any mercy!"

"It doesn't matter what kind of power Tartaros has given you." Minoru added. "We will do whatever it takes to defend this guild and its members."

Abbadon snickered as he raised his right arm up. Flames then engulfed it, illuminating his face and revealing a wide, sadistic grin.

"You think you have the power to stop the will of a demon, do you? Well then, show me..."

* * *

Within Blue Pegasus, the Trimens team had moved to surround Minerva, hoping to use their numbers to their advantage against the intruder. But Minerva simply laughed at them.

"Four men attacking one woman? And here I was just calling you gentlemen." she said, sarcasm clear in her tone.

"There is indeed a time for chivalry and manners. But alas, Minerva, this is not such a time. Men~" Ichiya said, striking a pose as he spoke.

"Hmph. Of course, Ichiya-sensei." Ren added with a slight smirk. "It's not like we can just hold back in a time like this."

"Very well then." Minerva replied. "If you wish to attack, I suggest you try while you still can."

"You asked for it!" Eve said, before holding out his right arm, with the palm facing Minerva. "White Fury!" he shouted, and a snowstorm was released from his palm and advanced toward Minerva. But when the spell died down, she was nowhere to be seen.

"Tch. Where'd she run off to?" Hibiki said, as he and the rest of the Blue Pegasus mages began to look over the area, trying to find her. But a portal then opened right behind Hibiki, and out stepped Minerva, with a katana now in hand.

"Looking for someone?" she said, and Hibiki immediately reacted, whipping around to face her. But the second he did, blood shot into the air as the blade of Minerva's sword slashed across his chest. Minerva then delivered a kick to his stomach, which sent him crashing to the ground near his guildmates, who immediately rushed to his side.

"Hibiki!" they shouted in unison as they checked on his condition. He tried to sit back up, but was unable to, and quickly started coughing up blood.

"Don't push yourself, Hibiki!" Ichiya said.

Eve nodded before adding, "He's right. You need to save your strength. You're going to be alright, Hibiki-san."

His words brought more laughter from Minerva, who stabbed her katana into the ground and smirked at the distressed mages.

"Oh really? I wonder about that." she said, before conjuring a sphere of magic energy around the four of them, trapping all of them inside and restricting their movements. Ichiya, Rem, and Eve all tried desperately to free themselves, but had no success.

"Th-this is bad... Men..." Ichiya said, and Minerva simply watched them struggle, amused by the sight.

"How pitiful you fools are." she said. "I'd thought destroying you insolent creatures would at least be a little more challenging. This world has no need for weaklings such as yourselves, so I'll be doing it a favor by ending your lives."

She then extended her arms and slowly began to rotate them in a circular motion while uttering an incantation, "Niel Wielg Mion Terse Elcantaeus..." A large figure resembling a god-like entity with intricate designs on its body then rose up from the ground, and each of the Blue Pegasus mages stared up at it in utter shock as it towered over them. And with her sadistic smile still spread on her face, Minerva finished Yakuma's Spell of the Eighteen Gods of Battle. "Yagdo Rigora!" As the words left her lips, a large pillar of light engulfed the area, followed by a massive explosion, destroying the Blue Pegasus guild hall.

* * *

To this point, Quatro Cerberus hadn't fared any better than Blue Pegasus. Rocker, Warcry, Yaeger, Nobarly, and Semmes were all buried beneath the debris and rubble of their destroyed guild, and Azuma now walked through the destruction, checking to see if any had survived his spell.

"Tch. What a waste of time." he said to himself, kicking a broken wooden plank aside. "I guess they really were just a bunch of weak puppies."

He then glanced over his shoulder as a small pile of wood began to stir, and Warcry emerged from it. Though Azuma was somewhat surprised to see this mage had survived, it was quite clear Warcry was in a considerable amount of pain. His right leg was awkwardly contorted, most likely broken, and he was only able to push himself as far up as his hands and knees. Also, his clothes were badly torn, and streams of blood ran down multiple areas of his upper body.

"Oh? So you're still alive, huh?" Azuma said, grinning slightly as he walked over to the wounded mage. Warcry said nothing in response, but simply looked up at his guild's attacker, tears forming in his eyes as he did so, which caused Azuma to laugh.

"You can't be serious! I was just about to compliment your toughness for surviving that blast, and then you start crying! Now that's just pathetic."

"...Don't laugh at me just because of my tears..." Warcry said. "It's only through tears that one becomes stronger!"

"Ha! That just might the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard!" Azuma replied before delivering a hard kick to Warcry's ribs, sending him rolling several feet. "Crying is just a sign of weakness. And a warrior with that kind of weakness shouldn't even bother calling himself a warrior anyway. I normally wouldn't waste my time with someone so weak, but it wouldn't feel right to let something so pathetic continue to exist."

"Oi, oi. Just who're ya callin' pathetic?" a voice called out, prompting Azuma to turn to see who it was. Standing there several feet from the wreckage of the destroyed guild was the ace of Quatro Cerberus, Bacchus Glow, with his gourd in hand. And with him where three other mages, none of whom Azuma recognized. Two were fairly young men, one with dark blue hair, and the other blond. And the third was a young woman with brown hair tied into pigtails.

"And just who might you be?" Azuma asked, raising an eybrow at them.

Bacchus took a sip from his gourd before answering, "The name's Bacchus, S-Class mage of Quatro Cerberus. And these here with me are our newest recruits. But you can just think of us as four mages who're pissed to come back from a day of training to find their guild destroyed. That shit ain't wild at all..."

"Wild? I couldn't care less about something like that." Azuma replied, unamused. "Just tell me this. Can you give me a challenging fight?"

At hearing his words, Bacchus set the gourd down, and the other mages with him all slid into fighting stances.

"Heh. I guess we'll have to find out now, won't we?" he said, before addressing the other three mages. "And how 'bout you guys?! That sound wild?!"

"FOUR!" they all shouted in unison before charging forward. Azuma grinned as his opponents approached and the anticipation of a potentially challenging battle built up in him. He then quickly looked from side to side as the bluenette moved to his right side, while the blond went to his left.

"Get ready, Kuro!" the blue-haired male shouted out to his guildmate.

"Ready when you are, Blues!" the other man replied. With a nod, Blues and Kuro both reared their heads back as they prepared their spells.

"Water Dragon's...Roar!"

"Water God's... Bellow!"

The two mages threw their heads forward, releasing their spells simultaneously, and Azuma's eyes widened as huge vortexes of water came rushing at him from both sides. At the last moment, he jumped high into the air, only narrowly avoiding being hit by the spells.

"A water dragon slayer and a water god slayer, huh? An impressive combination..." he said to himself. But while he was focusing on Blues and Kuro, Azuma failed to notice that the female was now in the air above him, smirking as she prepared to attack, lightning now covering her fist.

"Electric Punch!" she shouted before slamming her electrified fist right into the center of Azuma's back, causing the Grimoire Heart mage to grimace in pain as he was sent back toward the ground.

"Oi, nice shot, Cy!" Blues commented.

"Tch... Should've seen that coming." he thought to himself. And just before Azuma hit the ground, his thoughts were interrupted as Bacchus lunged forward, slamming a magic-infused palm strike to his stomach. The strike knocked Azuma out of the air and sent him rolling across the ground. As soon as he came to a stop, he rose back to his feet, once again grinning to his opponents.

"Not bad at all. Your teamwork is excellent. You just may be able to keep me entertained after all." he said.

"Normally we wouldn't bother with somethin' like that." Bacchus said. "But ya lost your right to a fair fight the moment ya turned our guild into a pile of rubble. Fact is, even if I wanted to fight ya myself, there's no way Blues, Kuro, and Cytheria here would just sit back and watch after that. So I guess you're just gonna have to try to deal with all of us." With his lips also curling into a grin, Bacchus slid into his traditional fighting stance, arms extended to the sides with his palms facing out.

"Wild..."

The other three took their original spots by Bacchus before replying.

"FOUR!"

* * *

The Black Phoenix mages all watched intently as Mathias stood between Tempesta and Master Ola.

"It's time... To deliver Lord Zeref's judgement upon you." Tempesta said, calm and collected as he spoke, before throwing his left hand forward and releasing a strong cyclone of wind at the Black Phoenix mage. Mathias grit his teeth and tried to withstand it, but was quickly tossed backward by the force of the attack. And as he tried to get up, Mathias was dismayed to say the least to find he couldn't move his limbs.

"What the... Why can't I move?!" he said, before a black-haired female weilding a staff stepped forward toward Tempesta, a wide smirk across her face. This was Mizaki Ome another of Black Phoenix's S-Class mages.

"Take it easy, Mathias. We'll handle the rest from here. Kallen! Leon! Lets kick this guy's ass!" she said, and two more mages followed behind her as she spoke.

"Right! You ready, Leon?" Kallen, a young purple-haired woman, said to the third mage. And Leon, a man withdark blue hair tied into a short ponytail nodded before replying.

"Hai. Ready when both of you are, Kallen-san."

"Alright then, lets go!" Mizaki said, her grin widening as she swung her staff forward, conjuring a tornado around the intruder. But with Tempesta being a master of similar techniques himself, he was unintimidated and simply swung an arm forward, ripping through the tornado and dispelling it as if it were nothing. But as he did this, Leon was already waiting right in front of him, with acid covering his fist.

"Acid Dragon's Steel Fist!" he shouted, slamming the fist right into Tempesta's jaw, causing him to stumble back a couple steps. By then Kallen had moved around behind them and was already preparing her own attack.

"Poison Dragon's...Roar!" she shouted as she threw her head forward, sending a large stream of poison which quickly collided with Tempesta's back, sending him crashing into a wall. Seeing the results of their teamwork, Mizaki continued to smirk as she twirled her staff around.

"Heh. We're Acidic Elements, the best team of mages in Black Phoenix, or Fiore for that matter. This is what happens when you try to fuck with our guild." she said. But her gloating was soon silenced as a single word was uttered from Tempesta's lips.

"Rumble..."

Immediately, a massive tornado was generated around Tempesta, destroying the roof of Black Phoenix as it reached up to the sky, and generating powerful winds that sent all of Black Phoenix's mages flying backward. Mizaki, Leon, and Kallen managed to keep their footing despite being pushed back. The tornado had decreased in size so that it now only encompassed Tempesta, and the demon then used it to dash forward, almost instantly appearing between Mizaki and Leon. Before either could react, both were hit with cyclones at point blank range just like Mathias had moments before, and were sent crashing into the wall of the guild.

"Mizaki! Leon!" Kallen shouted and she was about to rush to their aid, Tempesta swiftly charged over to her as well, and stabbed his hand right into her stomach. The entire guild suddenly seemed to go silent, each mage present staring in disbelief, horrified by what they had just seen. But the demon didn't care one bit what these humans thought of him. Without the slightest hint of remorse, he simply withdrew his hand and let the purple-haired girl fall lifelessly to the ground.

"KALLEN!" Leon shouted, tears welling up in his eyes. He tried desperately to get up and keep fighting, rage beginning to overtake his mind. But try as he might, his limbs were now paralyzed just like Mathias, and Mizaki wasn't in any better condition.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU!" She shrieked out toward the demon. Tempesta glanced in her direction.

"I told you, Lord Zeref's judgement is upon you." he said, before starting to walk toward Mizaki and Leon, and the rest of the guild was still recovering from his earlier attack. But he stopped as he noticed something above them. Enveloping himself in a tornado again, he used it to quickly move backward as something crashed down onto the ground between the demon and the two mages, then narrowed his eyes as he waited to see what it was. When the dust settled, a man in a suit of steel armor covering him from head to toe was revealed, with a sword in his right hand. Tempesta was unintimidated, and didn't hesitate to rush forward and throw a punch at the armored man. But the demon was surprised when the man not only avoided the punch, but managed to make a deep cut with his sword along the demon's side. Tempesta winced and jumped back, placing a hand over the wound. The armored man pointed his sword forward before speaking.

"My name is Tristan Gareth, ace of the Black Phoenix guild. But after what you've done here today, all you need to know about me is that I'll be the one who ends your life."

* * *

The mages of Fairy Tail all stood braced for battle as they stared at Hades. But Grimoire Heart's former master paid almost no attention on any of them, keeping his eyes on Makarov Dreyar.

"What will you do, Makarov? It would pain me to destroy my old home and family, but I will do what I have to. This is your last chance. Hand over the Resurrection Stone." he said, extending an upturned hand.

"Don't do it, master." Erza said, standing by Makarov's side. "We can't afford to let the stone fall back into their hands."

"She's right. Besides, we've beaten this guy before and we can do it again." Gray added.

Makarov took a moment to consider the situation, then came to a decision.

"Purehito! This is the second time you've stood against Fairy Tail on the side of the Balam Alliance! I will not stand for it! Either leave peacefully while you can, or you will be forced to fight against your former guild again! And for your own sake I hope you remember well how that turned out for you last time!"

Hades gave a small sigh at hearing the words.

"Very well. Then you leave me no choice."

"You apparently didn't learn the first time, so we'll show you again what happens when you mess with Fairy Tail! I'm all fired up now!" Natsu said. And with his fists ignited, he recklessly rushed forward toward Hades.

"Hmph. I haven't forgotten a thing, brat." Hades said, holding a hand out toward Natsu. A magic circle appeared in front of the hand, releasing a chain of magic energy that quickly wrapped around Natsu. And before the dragon slayer could react, Hades wrenched his arm across his body, pulling on the chain and tossing Natsu across the room, causing him to slam into the wall.

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted, before running to check on him.

Requipping into her Heaven's Wheel Armor, Erza pointed a sword toward Hades before shouting out to the rest of the guild.

"This man has invaded our home and attacked one of our nakama! Lets show him what happens to those who make enemies of Fairy Tail!"

The mages of Fairy Tail erupted with a simultaneous shout as they all charged at Hades. Next to Erza was Mirajane, already in her Satan Soul takeover. Likewise, each charging mage was preparing to use their magic. Unfortunately, so was Hades. Three purple magic seals appeared along the walls of the guild as well as two others, one on the ceiling and one on the floor. And before the Fairy Tail mages could reach him, the seals created a bright, massive explosion of magic energy which annihilated the vast majority of the building. Now just like Blue Pegasus and Quatro Cerberus, Fairy Tail's guild had been almost instantly reduced to little more than debris and rubble.

As the dust and smoke died down, Hades slowly walked through the remains of the demolished building, searching for Makarov. All around him were the unconscious bodies of Fairy Tail mages, many of whom were severely injured. But he showed no concern whatsoever for them as he continued to move about. Hades soon found Fairy Tail's master lying unconscious on the ground, but then stopped as a small pile of debris began to stir several feet behind him. And then, out of the debris rose Alzack Connell. Blood ran down over his face, and it clearly took the guns mage quite a bit of effort just to stay on his feet. He held a gun tightly in his hand while glaring at Grimoire Heart's former leader.

"Don't you dare take one more step towards our master, you bastard!" he shouted. Alzack then started to lift his gun, but Hades was much quicker. The old mage spun on his heel and brought his right hand up, forming it in the shape of a gun. A bullet of magic energy was then fired from his finger, piercing Alzack through the heart before he could even attempt to fire a shot of his own.

Several feet away, Bisca Connell had just regained consciousness. And as she opened her eyes, the very first thing she saw was a hole being blasted through her husband's chest. A moment of shock and disbelief followed, and the green-haired guns mage could only watch in utter horror as Alzack's body fell limply to the ground.

"NO! ALZACK!" she screamed out before sprinting to him. She knelt by him, tears streaming down her face as she tried to find a way to save him. But it didn't take long for the cold reality of the situation to sink in. Alzack Connell was dead. Bisca's tears continued to flow as her cries rang out seemingly all through Magnolia.

Hades simply looked on, not so much as a hint of remorse in his eyes.

"I warned you all of this. I told you destruction would be your fate if the stone was not handed over, and yet none of you listened. For what has happened here, the mages of Fairy Tail have nothing to blame but their own stubbornness." he said. Hades then walked back to Makarov's unconscious body, and removed the item he'd demanded from the short man's pocket. With the black stone now in his hand, he held it up in front of his eyes.

"The Resurrection Stone has now returned to the Balam Alliance."


End file.
